Ep. 11 - Maui, USA
Enjoy another 5 minute break from the week by exploring the unique characteristics and deep history of the magical island of Maui. See why the locals say “Maui no ka oi” or “Maui is the best” and add another great destination to your travel bucket list.
Listen to full episode :
Transcription:
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Hey! Happy Friday, welcome to another episode of your weekly five minute dose of history and adventure, The Friday Take Five. I’m your host, Mark Moran, and as usual, we’re taking a pause from the craziness of life, and satisfying both travel bugs and history lovers by exploring a new place, with a new story. We’ve got a great one for you today, and it’s my hope that by the end of our time together you’ll be re-living great memories or adding yet another destination to your bucket list. Without further ado, let’s get things started.
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Aloha, today we’re taking a trip to the Hawaiian islands, and with this episode, we’re focusing on the island of Maui. I had the fantastic privilege of getting to visit Maui this past year as a getaway from the frigid winters of the frozen U.S. mainland and it also resulted in the engagement to my now fiance. Great adventures, great history and a great fiance? Needless to say I lucked out.
This episode, unlike most, spans across multiple cities. In our trip to Hawaii, we spent the entire trip on one island, but we made the most of it by exploring the unique aspects of different locations across the island.
We split our time by first staying in Lahaina, and the back half in Kihei, which sit on the western and eastern sides of the island respectively. In the first few days we surfed and watched whales jump off the coast of Lahaina. The second full day, we visited the Kula lavender gardens, which is where my lovely lady said yes when I fumbled over my words when proposing. I highly recommend the lavender garden as it provides a wonderful view of Maui and an incredibly calming atmosphere.
A few days in, we took a helicopter tour out of Kahului across West Maui and Molokai. Huge shout out to Nate with AirMaui for providing the calmest experience a pilot possibly can while hurtling along at high speeds in a large aluminum can. In addition to his calming demeanor, Nate provided a great history of early settlers on the island, which got my history loving brain churning. It wasn’t until we got back to our AirBnB in Kihei that I got a chance to learn more about the history of the island and how pivotal a role Maui played in the unification of the Hawaiian islands.
Unification of the Hawaiian islands began with the conquering of Maui. Kamehameha I, had previously grown in power to control much of the big island through force, but Maui was his first step toward unifying all the Hawaiian islands under a common banner.
In 1790, with the help of two westerners named John Young and Isaac Davis, Kamehameha launched an assault on the island of Maui, landing relatively close to Kihei actually. Kamehameha brought along his traditional weapons, and also cannons furnished by the Westerners, which were ultimately able to help him turn the tide in the third day of fighting on the island.
Due to warring and pillaging of Kamehameha’s territories back on the big island, the king of Maui was ultimately able to resume and take it back from Kamehameha, however it wasn’t long before Kamehameha was back and took Maui for good in 1793. In the next roughly 20 years, Kamehameha won power over all the islands through a combination of force and peaceful negotiations. He led policy and trade changes that helped Hawaii keep up through a harsh period of conquests by European powers. Kamehameha is an incredibly important figure in Hawaiian history and to this day he is honored at the state and national level with statues of him in Hawaii and at the U.S. capital.
Luckily, our trip wasn’t disrupted by too much war between tribes, and we were able to take advantage of other incredible things such as snorkeling with the local wildlife and exploring the road to Hana and making our way up the Haleakala volcano. However, it’s thanks to Kamehameha’s unification that much of what we enjoy today was even made possible. As always, I’m truly humbled by the great history that came before us and how virtually every great travel destination also has incredible history behind it.
I hope that with today’s episode we inspired you to either relive some of your own great Maui memories, or that we’ve gotten you to add Maui to your travel bucket list! Aloha.
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Mahalo friends! Thanks so much for giving this week's episode a listen. If you like what you’re hearing on the Friday Take Five, please take a moment to share this week’s episode with a friend and give us a 5 star rating on your favorite podcasting platform. Got feedback or recommendations on places or stories for us to cover? Follow us and give us a dm on socials @FridayTakeFive or email us at thefridaytakefive@gmail.com. Stay curious, stay adventuring, and have a great weekend!
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